Out of 64 FABULOUS comments, the winner is #40, BECKY BRUCE!! Becky said, “I had a Grandmother, that quilted and I recently hand quilted one of her tops, BTW love the ghost hexies!” YAY for finishing one of her tops, Becky!

I loved all of your comments! It sure is fun to see how many have learned from the generations before and some who have taken up quilting as the first in the family. Whatever your history, I hope you’ll continue to gather and finish the UFO’s of the past, whether your own grandmother or someone else’s grandmother. They would be honored!

Good morning! I’ve got a WINNER! First, I have to tell you how much fun I had reading all your comments. I was having my own food, family, friends and fireworks fun, so I couldn’t answer you, but all of YOUR favorite foods made me hungry!

I had 131 comments and number 51 is the WINNER!!! VALERIE WAGNER wrote “It used to be my homemade, fresh blackberry cobbler but the season is much earlier here in Texas. My current favorite would be potato salad. 5 lbs being prepped now!”

I know the top will have a great finish. Valerie happens to be a fellow longarmmer and I think we follow each other regularly! Check out her blog when you have a minute Thread Tales From a Scrappy Quilter.

My favorite food is STEAK!!! I would eat it 3 meals a day if I could. My brother and sister-in-law did the grilling honors on Saturday. This might be my favorite picture from the day.

Sometimes I just need a quick project with a quick finish! I love to try new digital designs and art projects on hotpads and potholders. I volunteer one morning a week at an art based preschool program. We have the coolest projects for 4 year olds! I always try to take white fabric and do the kids paint projects on the fabric. This is a recent hotpad I made, using my Sharpie painting in the middle.

Draw with Sharpies and using eye droppers, drop rubbing alcohol on the drawing. It will produce a nice bleed. I never know how washable some of these projects are, but with a Sharpie base, I think it’s safely washable!

I always use Insul-Bright thermal batting so it will be heat tolerant.

Here are a few past favorites. I also love to give them away, so be watching my Facebook page as I feel there may be a giveway coming soon!

I finished quilting a linen collage last week and while I had an able bodied 5 year old around, I thought I would make a short video on the beginning process of a linen on the long arm. I’ll add that to the end of this post.

The “base” of this collage is a floral embroidered tablecloth with a crochet edge. Those vintage edges are what I really admire on these linens! Ladies took such time years ago to beautify everything! The center is made up of current day fabrics with two embroidered pieces on top of that.

The original embroidery on the tablecloth are the blue and yellow flowers and then the blue embroidered line along the edge. When I start one of these, I first stitch around the outer edge of the crochet edge.

After the outer stitching is done, I go around all the embroidery and outline it with my stitching. Then, the fun begins! I will admit the first steps can be somewhat tedious, but worth the next phase of quilting. At that point, think of it as a regular quilt.

I love the sentiment on this embroidery…..”mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all”. Then it lists women, assuming those might be sisters in a family, or maybe the makers best friends! OK, now for my amateur video. Enjoy!

I had my fabulous machine drive for the finish of this crazy quilt. I needed to clean up my studio and hate to have a quiet space, so I chose one of my own recent purchases to put on the frame.

My lovely machine is a Handi Quilter 24 Fusion with Prostitcher. In English this means I have a large machine with a computer 😉 I can either guide the machine myself or with the computer. Many times I choose both.

This crazy quilt is a great example to explain a few things. First, don’t spend a bunch of money for custom quilting on busy fabric!

Honestly, do you see much of the pattern on the front? I only notice the fabulous 1930’s fabrics, which is the whole point of this quilt for me! Now let me show you the pattern…..

I also did the stitching in red to distinguish the pattern as much as possible on the front, but it hardly matters when you have such a collage of fabrics.

So yes, on a solid, spend some money, where you can see it! And you can spend a LOT of money if you choose. Let me break the cost down of this particular quilt.

I charge by the square inch of a quilt, depending on the intensity and difficulty of the pattern. An edge to edge, all over design is by far the easiest and most of the time, finished by the computer. There are oodles of designs! Charges begin at 2 cents per square inch. The dimension of this quilt is 63″ x 74″. If you multiply these numbers you will get the total square inches, 4,662. Now, multiply that times the per inch cost of the quilt, 2 cents….4,662 x .02 = $93.24. Custom work (lots more quilting) begins at 3 cents per square inch and goes up from there. It’s that easy!

I carry a few different types of batting and mostly use Hobbs or Warm and Natural 80/20. I can also use 100% cotton or washable wool. Polyester batting can be a little slick, so I’m not such a fan. Most quilts use 2 or 3 yards of batting @ $10 a yard, so add $20-$30 for batting.

That’s it in a nutshell! Email or Facebook message me for a quote. You can also find me at Kelly Cline Quilting on Facebook, where I usually post daily. I am booking into July right now and I ship all over the country. Thanks for stopping by!

I’m a little particular about the smells and condition of the quilt tops I work on, for myself and customers. I have a terrible mold/mildew allergy, so there is no tolerance for them in a quilt top! I have found a few things that work well for me. Here we go…..

AMMONIA, is the secret to removing mold and mildew. I soak 1 part ammonia to 7 parts water in the bathtub, overnight. Every now and then I go in and give it a good stir and a squish.

The next day I gently squeeze out water, rinse, repeat, at least 3 or 4 times. You will find the water is so dirty and smelly that once or twice is just not enough! I rinse until there is no more brown in the water. I squeeze out all the water I can without twisting or wringing. Then I lay it out on the grass for most of the day. Depending on the fabric and the stitching, I might air fluff it in my dryer for about 20 minutes.

This quilt had a lot of “tea” stained areas due to age, so it got a second soak for the staining AFTER it was quilted with a product called Retro Clean. It comes in powder form and I also mix it in the bathtub and let it soak overnight. Same process, squish out all the water and then lay outside for a good sun soak. I definitely give it some time in the dryer for a softening.

This quilt came out looking brand new when it was finished! It’s initial bargain price of $10 took a little work to get to the finish, but all worth it at the end!

I used an all over sunflower pattern for the quilting.

I love the vintage fabrics and especially how white and bright it became!

Need a vintage quilt, quilted, and wonder what it would cost? This top was 80″ x 90″, which is 7,200 sq inches. I charge 2 cents per sq in for an edge to edge design, totaling $144 for the quilting. Add in 3 yds of batting at $10/yd and the total is $174. Shipping both ways will also run about $20-$30, depending on the size of your quilt. That’s it in a nutshell! Email for a quote and time frame!

I recently finished this beautiful applique for a customer. It only took her 6 months to complete, which astounds me. I’d be 10 years on something like this!! I love the texture that was created by the quilting.

This was a photo I shot one early morning when I came to my studio. It felt somewhat spooky and calm at the same time.